Monday, March 29, 2010

I started delving into the Paleo adventure after seeing Fat Head and John Durant's appearance on The Colbert Report within 24 hours of each other. As a guy who has struggled with his weight for 28 years, I've always taken an interest in the latest trends in weight loss. 2 years ago I switched to a low carb lifestyle after my father had some health issues come to light that all of us had been ignoring for a long time. The greatest of these issues were type 2 diabetes and a possible "cardiac episode" that my dad had toughed out without seeking medical attention. All of this culminated in my dad losing a ton of weight on his own via a fairly low carb life and me being fueled to follow the TNT approach to weight loss. I lost some weight and felt great. I just couldn't stick with it long term as my cravings would overtake me at weak points and eventually put weight back on. Parts of a low carb diet didn't really jive with my common sense, either. I don't mind eating some fat. I love butter, cream, and especially bacon, but I don't see those products, when eaten as dietary staples, contributing to a healthy lifestyle.

At this point in the journey, I've put my original weight back on, walking around at a husky 200 on a 5'10" frame. After some frustrations with my employment situation, my fiance and I decided to take a year off and travel the globe via seeking work as English teachers abroad. Spending a year in South Korea was one of the greatest experiences in my life. I'll save a lot of them for later entries, but you learn a lot about yourself when you remove everything that you know. I lost some weight over there eating the local fare, but it yo-yo'd throughout the year as drinking is THE thing to do in Korea. There is a societal expectation that you will partake in food or drink when offered and ultimately, my love of Korean culture bit me in my Korean BBQ filled butt.

Fast forward to a couple months ago and my fiance and I are watching Fat Head and a 10 minute portion of it addresses the evolutionary changes in humans and how the standard American diet is in direct contradiction of those adaptations. All of the sudden it all clicks. I've heard of this "caveman diet" stuff before, but had never really thought of it in such simple terms before. The next day, John Durant happens to be the guest on The Colbert Report and his quick synopsis of the Paleo lifestyle solidifies in my brain the need to at least attempt this new faddish lifestyle (I've embedded the video below). The basics make perfect common sense: only eat what you can find in nature. As a Christian, nature is created by God and God is good, so Paleo is good. That was it.

The first day was easy. I was motivated. I was looking up new info constantly. I was educating myself and doing my best to rid myself of all preconceived concepts of what is healthy when it came to food. Day 2 was rough. Having done low-carb before, I was ready for the headaches, but these nearly put me out of commission for a couple of days. It was my first real experience with withdrawal. I cheated with some peanut butter (which I now know is not Paleo) covered apples to get me by when I couldn't even sleep because of the discomfort. Since then it has been fairly smooth sailing. It's been 2 months and as of this morning, my weight is 174 pounds and I'm still 5'10" (thank God).

What I hope to do is help add to the rapidly growing internet based Paleo community with links, recipes, workouts, and general thoughts on topics that arise within the community. I hope others will read this and at least be willing to give Paleo a shot for a month or so. Thanks for reading and I hope you return soon to see what else I put up!

2 comments:

It's a fairly low budget documentary, but it gets its point across. It's almost funny how cheesy it can be at times, but it makes a lot of sense when it gets to the paleo portion. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can get a copy there. If not, it may be hard to get your hands on a copy. Thank you for reading. I hope you check back often to see the newer posts!